Friday on My Mind: Songs for the Rain

It’s time again for Friday on My Mind. Our weekly blog post where we look at videos centered around one common theme. This is a collaborative effort between KEXP and King 5 News.

It is here again. The rain. It’s as Seattle as Starbucks, Microsoft, and Frasier. We here know it well, but people do exaggerate. Tacoma, Olympia, and even Portland all get more rain than Seattle. And if you really do your homework, you’ll learn that cities on the East Coast beat us out on the amount of yearly rain that falls city wide every year. It was back in the 1960s that we gained this reputation as the rainy city to end all rainy cities. During that time a majority of people wanted to motivate people to move to our fair city. Others weren’t so down with that including newspaper journalist Emmett Watson who formed a group to help keep people from moving here. Part of their plan of attack was to start the vicious rumor that it rained in Seattle non stop, but people made their way here regardless in spite of or maybe because of the idea of lots of rain, which really wasn’t true. Although, all that being said, Seattle just had a record breaking amount of rainfall this past September. So there’s that.

And now to prepare us for the wet months ahead, here are songs about the rain…

Guns N Roses – November Rain

Epic. And fitting since it is now November and you know… the whole rain thing. This song and video are just under 9 minutes long. And if you think thats bad, be grateful. Axl edited the song down from it’s original length of 25 minutes, which I guess kind of makes sense since apparently he began writing the song in 1983.

Blind Melon – No Rain

This song choice was not so much about the onslaught of rain so much as wishful thinking. And in case you were wondering… there is a Guns N’ Roses, Blind Melon connection. Blind Melon frontman Shannon Hoon sang backing vocals on the song “November Rain”. See-it all comes round full circle. Never forget the bee girl.

Gene Kelly – Singing in the Rain

Epic. But in a less Slash sort of way. As far as I know there isn’t a Guns N’ Roses, Gene Kelly connection.